A blast from the past, James "Flight" White

[jmac83]

Got a couple of minutes last night with the Knicks vs. the Hawks. He wound up transferring to Cincinnati as it became clear his fit with the Gators' system wasn't great, but there was a time we fans thought the program had recruited the next electric small forward.

[irish2u2]

It's ironic but as a lifelong Knicks fan who has seen every minute of every game the Knicks have played this year my perception of White, who is now 30 years old, has completely changed.

I think I have seen maybe one dunk from White in a regular season game. He's still athletic but now he is just a very smart, very skilled role player. His defense is excellent and he can score some when needed though he never looks for his offense. I like the guy a lot. Playing in Europe has helped his game though like jmac I thought he was going to be a dynamic, high flying, high scoring player back in the day.

[oxymoron]

The fact that he's still playing in the NBA is a surprise. I'm glad to hear he's doing well.

[tupacbiff]

Originally Posted by oxymoron

The fact that he's still playing in the NBA is a surprise. I'm glad to hear he's doing well.

Why? He was a mcd AA who was über athletic.

[InstiGATOR1]

White was terrible on defense when he was at UF. When he left he made the odd but inspired choice to go play for Bob Huggins.

I wondered if Huggins and White could coexists. The choice was inspired because Huggins made a defender out of White and he has bounced back and forth between Europe and the NBA. He has had two different times in Europe.

[rivergator]

I remember the Gator excitement with an incoming class of White, David Lee and Kwame Brown. Brown never made it, White left after a year, but Lee did just fine ....

[madgator]

White dunked two hands from the FT line as a high school senior. Yeah, I'd say that qualifies as uber-athletic.

[regurgigator]

Originally Posted by irish2u2

It's ironic but as a lifelong Knicks fan who has seen every minute of every game the Knicks have played this year my perception of White, who is now 30 years old, has completely changed.

I think I have seen maybe one dunk from White in a regular season game. He's still athletic but now he is just a very smart, very skilled role player. His defense is excellent and he can score some when needed though he never looks for his offense. I like the guy a lot. Playing in Europe has helped his game though like jmac I thought he was going to be a dynamic, high flying, high scoring player back in the day.

Yes, I was surprised to see him hit a couple of 3-point bombs against the Heat a few weeks ago when the Knicks trounced the Heat. I don't know if he can do that regularly now, but good for him staying on an NBA roster.

I shed no tears when White left UF. I always cringed when he got the ball on a fast-break with no clear avenue for a slam dunk, because you knew he was probably going to shoot it, and you knew that it was HIGHLY probable he was going to miss

[themistocles]

What is really interesting about that rather Odd recruiting class is that at the MickeyD Dunk content, if I recall correctly, the Gators had something like 3 of the top 5, or something like that.

[ApexNC]

Originally Posted by rivergator

I remember the Gator excitement with an incoming class of White, David Lee and Kwame Brown. Brown never made it, White left after a year, but Lee did just fine ....

Yup...a buddy and I went to the McDonald's AA game in Cameron their senior year. We were on top of the world at that point.